In the late 1980s Queenstown was a sleepy little town with a couple thousand residents. However, the early 90s saw the arrival of Generation X, and their propensity for adrenaline and thrill-seeking changed the face of the town. Skiing, snowboarding, bungy jumping, paragliding, whitewater rafting and mountaineering were perfect fits for the picturesque lake town on the edge of the Southern Alps, and action sports enthusiasts swarmed there to get extreme and hang with like-minded peers. When mountain biking arrived on the scene, it was an instant hit with the local hedonists, and with lift-accessed peaks on all sides, Queenstown was destined to become a biking nirvana.
Those early thrill-seekers had no idea of the snowball effect they helped create on the town’s popularity. Soon everyone wanted a piece of the idyllic action sports wonderland.
By the heady pre-Covid days of early 2020, the town was unrecognisable, attracting more than one million visitors annually.
However it wasn’t just the thrill seekers who were drawn to the town’s stunning vistas, soon luxury hotels, wineries, golf courses and high-end stores starting appearing as Queenstown began to develop into more of a year round resort town.
Throughout the myriad of changes
